Hearing set for suspect in VA hospital killing

A 33-year-old Sedalia man charged with killing a fellow VA hospital patient in Columbia is due back in court.Rudy Perez Jr. is charged with first-degree murder in the Feb. 1 death of 78-year-old Robert Hill of Warsaw at Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. His attorney, David Tyson Smith, says Perez is schizophrenic.

A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for Monday afternoon in Boone County Circuit Court.Perez was arrested in Sedalia three days before Hill's death after a neighbor said Perez punched him in the face. He was released from the Pettis County jail 24 hours later without being charged but now also faces assault charges in that county.

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A 33-year-old Sedalia man charged with killing a fellow VA hospital patient in Columbia now faces Pettis County assault charges.

The Columbia Missourian reports that Rudy Perez Jr. is charged with five misdemeanor assaults as well as resisting arrest in connection with several Sedalia incidents in the days before the Feb. 1 beating death of 78-year-old Robert Hill of Warsaw at Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital.

Perez has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. His lawyer says Perez is mentally ill.

78-year-old Robert Hill of Warsaw was the man killed by another patient at Truman Veterans Hospital on Friday, Columbia police spokesperson Sgt. Joe Bernhard said in a release.

Bernhard said Hill was involved in an assault at about 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 1. He died from the injuries he sustained in the assault. The release said no weapons were involved in the assault, but didn't go into further detail.